Variety field guide
What to expect from Scarlet Kale Seeds
Deeply curled red-purple kale for baby leaves, cooking greens and repeated cool-season harvests.
Read the complete product descriptionTraits, flavor, garden use, variety notes, and the full catalog record
Scarlet brings a deep red-purple ruffle to the vegetable garden. Its heavily curled leaves hold their texture in a pan, while young leaves can be picked for colorful salads. Cool weather strengthens the purple tones and improves the sweetness of the harvest. Pick a few outer leaves at a time and the growing center keeps supplying more, making a spring or fall planting useful well beyond the first picking.
Purple ruffles for the garden, generous greens for the kitchen.
Variety and background
Scarlet is an open-pollinated curly kale in the Brassica oleracea group, the same species that includes cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Kale is selected for leaves rather than a tight head. Scarlet adds ornamental color to that familiar kitchen crop, but its leaves are fully edible. A specific breeder or introduction year has not been established for this seed lot.
Planting and growing
Sow 1/4 inch deep in fertile, well-drained soil, or start in cells for transplanting. Begin spring planting about 4–5 weeks before the last frost when the soil can be worked; sow again for a cool autumn harvest. Keep the seedbed evenly moist. Thin or transplant 12–18 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart. Full sun gives strong growth; some afternoon shade can help during hot weather.
Supply steady moisture and keep young plants free of competing weeds. Avoid repeatedly allowing plants to wilt, which can toughen leaves. A light mulch helps conserve moisture. Harvest-sized plants can become tall over a long season; allow roughly 3 feet of height rather than treating Scarlet as a dwarf kale.
Harvest and use
Begin checking for usable leaves around 50–55 days after sowing, with small tender leaves available earlier. Cut or snap outer leaves while leaving the growing tip intact. Use young leaves fresh and larger leaves in soups, sautés or baked kale chips. Remove coarse midribs to suit the recipe. Chilly weather can improve flavor, but protect the crop when prolonged hard freezes threaten.
Saving seed
Kale is a biennial, usually grown as an annual leaf crop. Seed production normally requires overwintering healthy plants so they flower in their second season. It can cross with other flowering Brassica oleracea crops, including cabbage and broccoli. Isolate seed plants from compatible varieties, maintain several representative plants, and collect pods as they dry before they split. Finish drying, thresh and store labeled seed cool and dry.
